One of the horror genre's "most widely read critics" (Rue Morgue # 68), "an accomplished film journalist" (Comic Buyer's Guide #1535), and the award-winning author of Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002), John Kenneth Muir, presents his blog on film, television and nostalgia, named one of the Top 100 Film Studies Blog on the Net.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Planet of the Apes TV Series Blogging: "The Gladiators" (September 20, 1974)

Near
a small settlement of apes and human slaves far from Central City, Virdon (Ron
Harper) loses the magnetic disc that can help the astronauts return home to
their time period.

Unfortunately,
the magnetic disc has been retrieved by the local ape prefect, Barlow (John
Hoyt), who runs gladiator games in the nearby arena to keep the humans in
his territory in line.

While
Galen (Roddy McDowall) attempts to get the disc back surreptitiously, Burke
(James Naughton) and Virdon are captured attempting to steal horses, and slated
for combat in the arena.

Meanwhile,
a human father, Tolar (William Smith) attempts to teach his son, Dalton (Marc
Singer) to be a warrior in the games, even though the boy’s mother was a
pacifist.

“The
Gladiators,” by Art Wallace is a not particularly memorable or scintillating episode of Planet
of the Apes (1974), except for the presence of a very young Marc Singer
-- future star of V (1983) -- as a pacifist human.

In
terms of this 2017 retrospective of the TV series, I am looking in particular
at not merely plot details, however, but the manner in which the episodes
explore what I see as the key theme of the series: race relations on the planet of the apes.

Here, Prefect Barlow’s attitude towards the human race is very patronizing, but in a sense
that’s to be expected, given what humans did, historically, to destroy
themselves (and the planet).

Barlow notes, for example (much like Zaius did in the
1968 motion picture) that man is “the
only animal that makes war on himself.”
He believes that by giving the humans the blood they lust for in the
arena, they can be controlled. “They’re waiting for blood. It’s their
nature. Human nature,” he says.

The
episode provides a counter-balance for this prejudice in the person of Dalton. Here is a human who
does not wish to fight, even though his father wishes him too. Dalton is a reminder that Barlow subscribes to a
stereotype, which might be defined as the failure to see a person as an
individual.

Instead of seeing Dalton’s peaceful ways, and noting that they go
against his perception of humans, Barlow hews to the stereotype for a long
time.

And
yet, Barlow does not seem like atotally bad person, despite his reliance on stereotypes.
For example, he is also patronizing to the gorillas, noting that they have “no understanding” of either “beauty or culture.” So it is not as though Barlow is merely a racist
towards human beings. He can clearly see that not all apes are wonderful people,
either. At one point, he even likens the
gorillas to children.

Of course, this comment is
trading in stereotypes too, isn’t it?

Eventually,
Barlow comes to understand the error of his ways and seeks a better way to
govern his settlement. Although one does not sense that humans will ever be
equal there, at least he has acknowledged, as one character notes, that “killing should stop.”

Barlow,
as a character, seems particularly real. He has beliefs that are wrong, and yet
is not “evil,” as one might conclude of another character: Urko (Mark Lenard). As this episode starts, Urko basically orders
his subordinate, Jason, to kill the astronauts on sight. He does not want to “get
to know” his enemy, or learn more about where they hail from. He wants them
eliminated. His mind is closed. By contrast, Barlow's mind is, at least a little, susceptible to reason.

Galen,
as usual, represents someone of very open mind and very few biases. When he learns
that his friends have lost the magnetic disc, he puts himself on the line to
help him. In this way, he reveals his “humanity.”

Intriguingly,
the first scene of the episode establishes that Central City is not the Ape
City from the movies (which was located near New York City). From a wall-map in
Urko’s office, it is clear that the city is located in California. Later in “The Gladiators,” Burke notes that
the fugitives are now somewhere “North of San Francisco.”

This
episode also features the series’ typical McGuffin: the magnetic disk. It is ta plot device which gets the fugitives
(Burke, Virdon, and Galen) into the story involving Tomar, Dalton, and Barlow.

Of course, as Burke rightly points out, there
seems little way that the magnetic disk could actually prove useful to the
astronauts. First they must locate a
computer capable of reading it (and hence, reading their flight trajectory). Then, they would have to construct a
spaceship which could return them to orbit (and the correct trajectory). I'm not certain how they think that could manufacture the necessary equipment.

Such an escape is the longest of long shots,
but I suppose it is important that the astronauts on the series be viewed (by audiences) as
purposeful and determined.They can’t
just wander the countryside, and settle down. Instead, they have to be fighting to return to their world.

Finally,
“The Gladiators” features a funny joke. Barlow is a collector of antiques from
the distant past, and fancies himself an anthropologist/archaeologist of sorts.
He proudly shows Galen a golf club, and mistakes it as some kind of ancient human weapon.

1 comment:

Nice review of “The Gladiators”. I found it interesting too that the 1968 film and it's 1970 sequel were based on the east coast New York area, but this series was west coast. Galen(Roddy McDowall) confirms Burke and Virdon got back to past Earth.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxE10ClIcj4

About John

award-winning author of 27 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).

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